


The Second Night Fury (2015)

by The Elegant Night Fury (Tirpitz6810)



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alpha Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, POV Third Person Omniscient, Set after HTTYD 2
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-06
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-06-22 17:23:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 16,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15586929
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tirpitz6810/pseuds/The%20Elegant%20Night%20Fury
Summary: After an early morning flight goes horribly wrong, Toothless and Hiccup become separated on a strange island following a traumatic crash landing. The only catch is that a female Night Fury lives on the island and makes an indelible impact on Toothless. Set after the events of HTTYD 2. Toothless/OC





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [The Second Night Fury (2015)](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/403776) by The Elegant Night Fury. 



Ch. 1

Authors note: I do not own How to Train your Dragon or anything related to it, I wrote this strictly for fun. Extensively edited for grammar and story structure August 1st, 2018

It was a peaceful day; the silence broken only by the cheers of Viking and his dragon on an early morning flight. Hiccup was set on testing the additions he'd made to his flight suit, and it put Toothless on edge. 'Stay me with bud" Hiccup said feeling his dragon slowing, Toothless snapped out of his thoughts and continued flying; he was not about to let Hiccup's experimentation interfere with his relaxation. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy being the Alpha, it was just difficult sometimes when he was "the Alpha" and not "Toothless."

"Ready bud?" He grumbled but to no avail, "Toothless, I'll be fine," with that, the tailfin lock was engaged, and Hiccup was gone. Toothless snorted, "you said that last time, if it weren't for me, you'd be dead." All at once he realized Hiccup was no longer visible. Panicked, Toothless dove below the cloud layer hoping Hiccup was nearby. Much to his relief, he did find Hiccup, wobbly, but stable. Toothless, however, should've been looking ahead instead of down at Hiccup, as an outcropping of rock pillars had emerged in front of him. Toothless looked up too late and smashed into the pillar head first, a stifled streak his only response. Hiccup, unaware, did his best to turn and look, off balancing himself in the process. Toothless, unconscious, plummeted downward, quite close to hitting Hiccup and before the left side of his body collided with another rock formation vanishing into the mist. "TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup tried to angle himself to follow his dragon, but an updraft caught him, sending him hopelessly off course to where Toothless would've crashed.

Toothless awoke to a throbbing pain in his head, and a sharp pain in his body. When he awoke next, the headache remained, but the pain from his body was gone. Once Toothless established who and what he was, several questions popped into his head. "Where am I? What happened? Where is Hiccup? Is he okay?" Putting these thoughts aside, he was asleep once more. When Toothless awoke for a third time, however, he managed to open his eyes, it was all fuzzy, a mesh of colors and light with no discernable shapes. After a few moments, this reduced to a slight blur ensuring everything stayed _just_ out of focus. He tried to move, wanting to find Hiccup and leave, but was met with a pain that seemed to emanate from every muscle in his body—even his tail. Toothless yelped at the unexpected pain and tried to move his wings instead.

Without warning, "NO! STOP! You'll undo all my hard work and reopen your wounds!" Shocked, Toothless whipped his head in the direction of the voice, blood rushed to his head and only managed to see a black shape before passing out. He awoke later that day and quickly began to scan for the owner of the voice, taking care to move as little as possible. "Where am I?" Toothless asked aloud, hoping the darkness would answer him. "You must have crashed harder than I thought, don't you remember?" The darkness answered back from a spot outside of his eyesight. "I remember a rock, am I missing something?" he replied irritated that the voice expected him to know where he was while being unconscious.

"Well, you crashed, and then I found you, and now you're here." "Where is here?" "Where I live, you're in my den." "I mean what this place called." Toothless asked not liking the vague answers he was getting, almost as if the voice didn't want to tell him. "Why would I give it a name? That's ridiculous." Having reached his limit for vague answers, Toothless tried a different question. "How long have I been here?" "I'd say about 2 days. You've been in and out of consciousness a lot, I wasn't sure if you'd ever stay awake." This worried him deeply, "2 days? Have you seen anything strange in those 2 days?" "No, but I've been attending to you for most of those 2 days, so something might've happened. Why?" Toothless did not think telling a voice about Hiccup was a good idea, so he lied. "Nothing important." "I see, well, you should probably get some more rest before your headache gets any worse." "How does this voice know about my headache?" he thought before drifting off to sleep.

Toothless woke up to sunlight, blinking he looked around taking in his surroundings, it wasn't much. He noticed his saddle and all the gear on his back had been removed and placed at the far edge of the cave. He was relieved that his vision had fully recovered and so far, suffered no permanent effects from his crash. Looking at his wings, his left wing was extended and had various plants and herbs spread out on it. Perhaps what Toothless noticed most, was the absence of whatever owned the voice. He despised idly waiting, but afraid to move his wing and reopen his wounds, he remained relatively idle for the remainder of a week. Toothless did not see so much as a glimpse of another living creature, let alone the owner of the voice in that time. Finally, at long last Toothless did see something, he awoke at night at on the eve of the 8th day to discover his wing had been cleared off. Ecstatic, Toothless attempted to close it so he could move. It was stiff and pained, but he successfully closed his wing without opening any wounds. Venturing outside the cave onto a small ledge, he looked into the night sky. "Hiccup, wherever you are, I'm—I'm sorry." After a few moments, Toothless noticed something flying in the sky. "Could they be from Berk looking for Hiccup?" This idea was dismissed as he watched the dragon, it was doing aerobatics. A thought crept into the back of Toothless's mind, but he refused to acknowledge it.

When Toothless noticed the dragon was coming closer, he backed into the cave, not wanting to frighten off whoever it was. The dragon landed on the ledge and within seconds the dragons pale greenish-yellow eyes locked on Toothless. "I'm glad to see you can still move." Toothless was too shocked to say anything. Before his very eyes stood another Night Fury—a female Night Fury. "Hello? Night Fury" She eyed him, curious why he didn't answer. "Why is he so stunned? Hasn't he seen another Night Fury before?" Toothless moved out of her way, lost in thought, she eyed him again but said nothing. "A female Night Fury." Kept repeating over and over in his mind. He followed her back into the cave soon after.


	2. Chapter 2

CH 2

"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup was mortified, he watched his dragon plunge downward, smashing into another formation on the way down. Intend on saving his dragon, Hiccup dived after Toothless but was caught by an updraft, it swept him away from his dragon and towards a small island half the size of Berk. A few short minutes later, Hiccup freed himself of the updraft and descended on the island. Splashing into a small pond, he fumbled with his gear for a moment before crawling out of the water. He turned to lay on his back, looking up at the morning sky thinking about last time he'd tried his flight suit. Several minutes past before Hiccup moved again, realizing he would need to get a fire going to dry his soaking wet clothes before nightfall.

Hiccup did not have to walk far to find all the firewood he'd need, and soon he had a small fire going which he hung articles of clothes over throughout the day. "How far have I drifted from where Toothless fell? Why haven't we encountered this island before?" and "How long before they realize I'm gone on Berk?" and similar thoughts passed thru Hiccup's mind. After spending all day drying his clothes out, Hiccup observed one very eerie detail about the island. He didn't hear anything, no birds, no dragons, nothing. "Hang in there bud, wherever you are." By Nightfall Hiccup had created a small lean-to shelter out of extra firewood and nearby moss, it didn't keep the cold out, but it made him feel a little safer.

The island as it turned out, was not as empty as Hiccup thought, while dragons did live there, circumstances forced them to hide in the shadows. A tyrannical Monstrous Nightmare considered the island his personal hunting grounds and killed anything that crossed his path. Hiccup would find this out over the course of several days while trying to locate Toothless or anything to indicate where his dragon might've been. Any life that he saw shrank into the shadows or ran away when he tried to approach—except a heavily battle-scarred Monstrous Nightmare that noticed him. Any thoughts of befriending the dragon to help in searching for Toothless vanished when the dragon charged, death evident in his eyes.

Hiccup began to run as fast as he could, but it was no use, twice he'd almost fallen and been finished. Hiccup was thankful this dragon lacked the brains to simply char him alive. He lost track of how long he spent narrowly dodging death and hiding whenever possible. Finally, when he hid beneath the husk of a tree, the dragon lost interest and flew away. "I hope I don't see him again," Hiccup said in between gasps, his chest screaming. When he recovered his breathe Hiccup left the tree husk only to realize in his desperation to escape the dragon, he'd lost track of where he was—if he ever knew to begin with.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch.3

In the morning, Toothless awoke feeling unusually well rested. Looking around the cave, he nearly jumped at seeing the female Night Fury sleeping opposite the cave from him. Then he remembered encountering her the night before—and being unable to say anything. Outside the sun had begun to rise, sending golden rays of pink, orange, and gold into the cave. Toothless, seeing his rescuer bathed in sunlight was awestruck—she was magnificent. She was leaner than Toothless and a beautiful midnight black. The brilliant colors of sunrise faded before Toothless caught himself staring at her, quickly looking away he tried to find something to occupy his time. He chose to examine his gear that lay off to one side of the cave, the condition could only be described as bleak. His tailfin, which was already a mangled mess of leather and metal, was charred—as if it was burned off. His saddle and connecting gear showed similar means of removal, there was little hope of repairing them, especially away from Berk.

"Good morning fellow Night Fury" Toothless jolted at the melodious voice, he turned to see the female Night Fury looking at him. "I'm sorry about all that stuff on you, I couldn't think of any other way to get it off without harming you. I needed to remove it so I could better assess your condition and provide proper treatment." This statement helped ease the growing panic about not being to fly but not squash entirely. "Our eyes are the same, what luck!" "What?" Toothless was confused by the dragons excitement over his eyes. "uh? Oh, its nothing" she said quickly. "I'd hate to call you Night Fury, do you have a name?" Toothless asked, wanting to change the subject. "Certainly, I'm Eletra, your name is…?" "Toothless." Eletra made a face, and Toothless realized his mistake, "erm, I mean that's what everyone calls me. My name is Thascale (Th-ah-scale)." "Why does everyone call you Toothless if your name is Thascale? Don't you like your name?" Toothless sighed and was trying to decide the best way to phrase it when his stomach grumbled.

"ACK! I've completely forgotten my hospitably, come on, I know a great place to eat." Eletra said flustered, and with those words, she was gone. Toothless walked outside into the crisp morning air to find Eletra already airborne. Toothless was suddenly overcome by a strange new feeling, he suddenly didn't _want_ to admit he couldn't fly by himself. Without thinking, Toothless leaped off the ledge and—realized his error too late. He couldn't just _give up_ while an attractive female was watching him. Toothless managed to glide down towards the forest floor and land with his dignity mostly enact. Eletra landed shortly after confused, "Thascale, why did you land? You looked good to me." She quickly shut her mouth as the last comment slipped out involuntarily. Without saying a word, or even looking at her Toothless lifted up his tail for her see. Her eyes went wide and then she remembered the battered contraption on his tail. "Thascale, I am soo sorry, I didn't know, is there anything I can do to help you?" Toothless finally looked at her, the happiness had evaporated from her face. "Eletra, it's nothing you did, please don't feel bad. I'll explain everything once I eat something," This seemed to bring some life back into her face, and the two began to walk.

After a time Eletra did speak up, somewhat hesitantly. "Funny thing is I almost never walk anywhere on this island." Toothless was puzzled, but she continued. "A Monstrous Nightmare and his compatriots live here and would love to see me dead, ambushes are easier on the ground." Toothless who had been trying to not stare at Eletra's tailfins swooshing back and forth didn't register the magnitude of what she said, not so much for his but for Hiccup's safety. The next time either one spoke was when Eletra announced they'd reached the secluded cove. "Nearly missed it, this is the place, follow me" with that she dove into a wall of hanging ferns and vanished. Toothless was stunned but wasted little time in jumping thru the ferns himself. Toothless, however, was not greeted by the reassuring feel of ground, but instead the rush of air and fell into a pond with a large splash. Eletra lay on the shore pleasantly amused, having watched the whole thing. Toothless walked over and plopped down next to her, water dripping off him. "You could've warned me" "Now what fun would that be Thascale? Relax, you're fine."

For what seemed like an eternity to Eletra, Toothless ate and ate, when he finished he lay down content to soak in the sunlight. Eletra couldn't take it anymore. "Toothless?" "Hmm?" he said casually opening an eye to look at her. "why are—" she stopped abruptly. Toothless now opened both eyes and turned his head to look at her his attention fixed. "what are you trying to say?" "That was too close, I can't believe I nearly asked why he was so attractive," Eletra thought as Toothless stared at her puzzled. "What I meant was, how can you trust a Viking enough to let him ride on your back, possibly controlling your missing tailfin." Toothless was not expecting this question, and the look of shock on his face must've conveyed it as Eletra appeared startled.

"How did you know that?!" "Thascale I thought it was obvious, I've observed Vikings before, your…stuff was crafted and sized for a Viking, and you only have one tail fin yet arrived at this island by flying." "When you put it that way, it does sound obvious," Toothless said humbled. "So how did you meet this Viking?" Realizing there wasn't any way around the question, he started in. "roughly 5 years ago, I was shot down while raiding a village, the Viking who shot me down came looking for me the next day to finish me off, he was a toothpick by Viking standards. I'm not sure why he set me free instead of killing me." "Why didn't you kill him?" "Not really sure, gratitude I guess, sparing his life because he spared mine." "I'm glad you did, but at what point did you let him sit on your back while you were flying? "It took him a long time, and a lot of fish to gain my trust, after the first few encounters with him I became curious how close he'd try and get to me after that he began to grow on me." Eletra looked relieved, "he brought you food?" "Yeah, it was a welcome surprise." Toothless talked about Hiccup and how he'd given him back his flight for a while longer; it was nearing noon when he stopped.

"Thascale, aren't you curious how I found you?" Eletra said once Toothless had finished. He looked at her, a fresh wave of curiosity spread over his face, "now that you mention it, I am, how _did_ you find me?" "I was catching my breakfast when I heard this scream, I looked up to see you emerge from the clouds and hit a rock formation, I heard a splash and nothing else. I was worried." Toothless felt a chill run down his spine, he'd no idea that he had collided with another rock on the way down. "After some searching I found you washed up on the beach, you'd exchanged a fair amount of blood for sand and salt deposits by the time I found you." Eletra could see how unsettled this made Toothless, but she continued, "I convinced a somewhat friendly Monstrous Nightmare to help me move you to my cave." Toothless was about to thank her "DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT MADE ME FEEL?!" Toothless wasn't prepared for this outburst and just sat there, a stunned look on his face. "Thank you, thank you for saving my life." Eletra smiled and quieted down much to Toothless's delight, he didn't want to be shouted at unexpectedly.

Soon both Night Furies heard the rustling of bushes around the cove edge. "TOOTHLESS! Bud, where are you?" Toothless gave Eletra a look pleading her to not move or make a sound. After a few minutes, Hiccup left, distraught. "Thank you for not making any noise" "You talked about how much you cared for this Viking, but now you don't want him to find you; why?" Toothless paused for a moment before answering, "I'm not ready" It was a terrible answer, but the best Toothless could think of without starting an uncomfortable conversation. "I see" It was clear she did not, but she had no desire to press the issue. "I'm going to move to a place that still has some sunlight, you're welcome to come with me," Eletra said before moving, so it was that the two Night Furies wandered off in search of a patch of Sunlight.


	4. Chapter 4

Ch.4

`Hiccup wandered the island which by now he'd nicknamed "Lost Hope" in a hopeless attempt to find Toothless. Without realizing it, he'd searched the same area twice and was headed in a totally random direction. Several times Hiccup thought he heard what might have been a dragon but every time he reached where he thought the sound came from, it'd vanished. Hiccup feared he was starting to go crazy. It had been over a week with not even a trace of Toothless, and it worried him. "TOOTHLESS! Bud where are you?" He had thought he heard rustling but wasn't sure, after a long few minutes he moved on to look elsewhere in hopes he wasn't going nuts.

Hiccup stopped searching early that day, tired of searching, and tired of staying a step ahead of his fears about Toothless's fate. Checking his clothes and prosthetic for anything wrong he settled in for the evening, unsure what do next. For a long while, Hiccup stared up at the clouds, thinking about what could've happened to his beloved dragon. Once it was dark, Hiccup stared at whatever stars were out, depression was closing in fast. He couldn't sleep as his worries refused to let his mind rest, so he reattached his prosthetic and began to walk—in the dark, on an island he didn't really know. Hiccup hadn't been walking for very long when the ground under his feet gave way, and he found himself an unwilling participant of a landslide. He was relatively unharmed by the landslide, save being knocked unconscious. In the morning, when Hiccup awoke, he looked around and to his surprise found himself half buried in clumps of dirt and roots. It took him a few seconds to gather his bearings and remember the night before.

Climbing out from under the debris, Hiccup looked around and found himself on a small beach, an area he had yet to search. Walking on the beach was more difficult than Hiccup had initially thought, as his Prosthetic kept sinking into the sand. The small strip of beach had no end in sight and there was no way to climb back up he observed. After going around a bend a little later, the sandy strip widened, and Hiccup noticed something. A patch of sand that was untouched by the waves showed evidence of blood. Hiccup couldn't be sure if this was blood from Toothless or not, it was after all, just bloodied sand but it still panicked him. Hiccup searched and searched, but if anything had once been there to indicate whose blood it was, the waves had long since erased it. He did his best to push thoughts of Toothless being dead out of his mind and searched for a path up. He did eventually find one, it was actually the remains of a different landslide, and it took Hiccup some time to work his way to back up, so when he finally made it, his breathing was ragged and whole body ached.

On Berk, Vikings were starting to wonder where Hiccup and Toothless had disappeared to, Valka had told everyone that Hiccup was investigating a possible places the defeated Bewilderbeast might be, only the Vikings close to Hiccup knew this to be a complete lie; Astrid in particular. Valka had, with Astrid's help, sent out tracking dragons in hopes of finding Hiccup and Toothless but there was no success. Valka herself was becoming more and more worried about what'd happened to Hiccup and his dragon. She knew searching for Hiccup herself would undoubtedly confirm and suspicions villagers had about Hiccup's real whereabouts. Astrid had searched with Stormfly as well, but they too, found nothing.


	5. Chapter 5

Ch.5

As Toothless followed Eletra to a sunny patch, he found himself wondering who she was. "Where is she from? Why is she here? How does she know so much about healing?" Toothless was careful not to ask these questions yet because of how she might react to them. "You need to stretch your wings more than the quick glide this morning, It would also help me ensure everything is alright Thascale" Toothless didn't reply. When the two dragons reached a sunny spot that Eletra liked they stopped, Toothless noticed it was a grassy bank bordering a pond.

Toothless was surprised when Eletra moved away from him to the other side of the pond. "Odd," he thought before resuming his thoughts on how Hiccup was faring after being lost and alone for so long. Eletra, on the other hand, felt a strange emptiness when she moved away from Toothless. She was sitting in the sunlight yet a chill ran thru her, She tried to figure out what the uncomfortable sensation was, until growing frustrated at her lack of ideas. "What is it!?" She shot a plasma blast at the pond, it sizzled on contact, and a few fish surfaced, having been boiled alive. Toothless opened one eye to look at Eletra, wondering why she'd decided to boil fish. A short time later Toothless decided to make an effort to find Hiccup and looked up to find Eletra had vanished.

"TOOTHLESS!" Toothless whirled around to see Hiccup, covered head to toe in dirt and grime. He was exhausted but ecstatic to see his dragon, he was so happy in fact, he failed to notice everything Toothless was not wearing. "Wherever Eletra went, I'm glad she isn't here" Toothless thought to himself as he managed to catch Hiccup from falling on the ground with his muzzle."Yeah, bud I've missed you to" Hiccup hugged his dragon for a long moment before recovering his balance—would've recovered his balance if Toothless hadn't deposited him in the pond. "Toothless" Hiccup said standing up in the waist high water, trying to shake off the water. Toothless gave him his signature grin before pulling him out. "Toothless do you know how long it's taken me to find you?!" Toothless had a vague idea but was more interested in how long it would be until Hiccup noticed his missing flight gear. Oddly enough, Toothless didn't see a trace of Eletra the rest of the day.

Hiccup soon began to barrage Toothless with questions, some of which Toothless thought he expected a spoken answer for. "What happened to you Toothless? I've been searching for you non-stop for almost 2 weeks now! You weren't hiding from me, were you? I could have sworn I heard you several times the past few days, but when I went to search you were gone." At last Hiccup finally slowed his mind down enough to notice what was missing from his dragon. "Toothless, what happened to your saddle? And your tailfin" Luckily, Hiccup even after his unexpected dunking by Toothless, still needed to clean himself up, and spend the next few hours doing that, so any talk about his gear was put on hold... Toothless had fun implementing Hiccup's idea on catching fish, he found it most enjoyable, blasting a concentration of fish with a plasma blast and letting Hiccup collect the floating boiled fish.

Once they had all the fish they wanted, Hiccup went about finding wood for a fire. Just like the first fire he made, it was relativity easy to find firewood—lighting it was even easier. With one tiny blast, Toothless had the fire blazing. Hiccup who was about to roast the fish over the fire received an insulted look from Toothless and roasted the fish all at once in seconds. Once Hiccup had his fill of fish, he went to sleep underneath one of Toothless's wings. Toothless meanwhile, was left to think about Eletra and Berk until he to fell asleep. In the morning Hiccup awoke only to close and reopen his eyes again to ensure he was awake—the sky was pitch black. It wasn't for several second that he remembered he was underneath one of his dragon's wings. Hiccup listened to soft breathing from Toothless before closing his eyes and returning to sleep.

Toothless woke up late, and for a moment thought he was once again in the Cove at Berk, but then that moment faded, and he remembered where he was, he sighed. But then he remembered Eletra, and his spirits lifted. Toothless, ready to be moving tried to close his right wing only to hear a mumbled yelp of surprise from it. Toothless forgot that Hiccup was there, so he was equally surprised. After some frantic movements from his wing, he opened it to find Hiccup staring at him. "I didn't need a wake-up alarm, we're not going anywhere until we find your saddle and tail fin Bud" Toothless huffed as if saying, "fine, then tonight you won't sleep under my wing." "You made your point, c'mon lets start looking."


	6. Chapter 6

Ch.6

Eletra landed in a meadow some distance from Toothless, "I need to clear my head." The feeling of emptiness had not gone away, in fact, it'd worsened. Eletra tried to remember what her mother had taught her, but she kept drawing a blank, only recalling her lessons on healing. Baffled, she attempted to sleep but found she couldn't, her mind still racing trying and decipher its emotional state. With any hopes of sleeping dashed, Eletra looked around the meadow, she spied a small nest of birds merrily singing and chirping away. There were two birds that she could see fussing over something inside the nest. She watched them for a while, they looked so peaceful and calm. All at once, whatever the two birds were fussing over popped its head up over the nest. Eletra was flabbergasted, it was a Night Fury hatchling, soon two more hatchlings came into view. She blinked, but they remained, staring at her. Then one of them gave a loud chirp, within seconds all three were madly chirping.

Eletra opened her eyes to see the two birds tending to three babies that'd just hatched. "I must've fallen asleep, whew, that was a crazy dream." Crazy as it was, it made Eletra wonder if she was lonely. Why did I not feel this way before? I've been alone for 2 years, why am I all the sudden longing for companionship?" She knew the answer even before she'd finished asking the question. "Thascale." I should get back and tell him, maybe he feels the same way, a shiver of excitement ran down her spine at this notion. When Eletra returned to the pond she stopped short—there was a Viking with Toothless. "I'd better not disturb them," and she vanished into the brush after observing the Viking Toothless had talked so much about.

That night Eletra waited for Toothless, but he never showed up at her cave. She somewhat expected this, knowing he'd found Hiccup, but some part of her still held out hope he would arrive. She awoke early the next morning to find Toothless was still not there, only his charred gear remained. "how did I live like this for so long?" With Toothless not there, she fell into her old morning routine which she'd kept for so long—until Toothless arrived. She flew out away from the island to catch her breakfast before settling down in the cove where Toothless explained about Hiccup, Berk and his gear. She lay there soaking in the warm sunlight, thinking about how Toothless may never fly again with his gear irreparably damaged. Every idea she had on how she might be able to fix his gear, she dismissed after finding some fatal flaw in it. Distraught she headed back to her cave to examine his gear once more in case she'd missed some small detail.

Eletra was shocked to find Toothless waiting on the cave ledge for her, his tailfin dangling off the edge. "Thascale, I thought you'd be with Hiccup" Toothless was surprised, "How—how did you know?" landing on the ledge, which was just big enough for both dragons, she explained. "When I came back to find you, I saw a Viking with you, I assumed it was Hiccup who you told me about." "That makes sense," he thought to look at her. "Thascale, why aren't you with Hiccup, surely he must still be shaken after being lost for so long." "He's asleep, plus I need to get my gear, even if only to satisfy him so we won't keep searching for it." "How will you explain the damage?" Toothless found he couldn't think of a suitable answer to tell her. It suddenly dawned on Eletra, "Toothless, if you can't fly, how did you get to my cave?" "I flew up." He said casually, Eletra blinked, "you—" "flew up, I just had to get enough lift, the hardest part was keeping my balance." Eletra was about to ask how he achieved lift when he spoke again, in a worried tone. "I'll be back, I don't want Hiccup to go searching for me again." And just like that Toothless dragged his gear to the ledge and glided off, the gear in his paws.

It was late afternoon before Toothless returned to Eletra's cave, she'd been lounging on the ledge for several hours. Currently, she was busy watching a tiny speck grow from a dot to a small dragon and then to a Stormcutter searching the neighboring island. "I haven't seen a Stormcutter in a long time, I wonder what it's doing here," she thought to herself as Toothless landed next to her. "Nice landing for only having one tailfin" "I tried." Toothless unaware of the Stormcutter was surprised when Eletra leap off the ledge without warning, Toothless of course, followed her wanting to know her abrupt actions.

Meanwhile, Cloudjumper was uneasy flying so close to an island that reeked of death and decay. Valka reasoned how Cloudjumper was acting was why dragons stayed away from this stretch of islands. Abruptly, his discomfort left, for Cloudjumper observed two black dragons flying down into the forest on the next island. Eletra arrived at the same meadow she'd watched the birds the other day as for Toothless, he was all too glad to land, "Eletra what was that all about?" She didn't have time to answer, as a shadow descended on them. "Toothless, we've finally found you." He looked to see Cloudjumper land and Valka dismounted. Eletra was quite surprised by this development and slowly backed away. "I—I can't believe it, you've managed to find another Night Fury, but how?" Valka was stunned. "Cloudjumper? Valka?" Toothless was taken aback by their sudden entrance and remained so for several moments.

Toothless went over to Cloudjumper curious how Berk was doing without Hiccup. "Has there been anything happen on Berk I should know about?" Unlike the Vikings, a majority of the dragons haven't done anything to require you stepping in as Alpha to settle the matter." "That's a relief, how is Stormfly?" "Worried, but Astrid is keeping her busy with some new project." While Toothless and Cloudjumper talked, Valka had been unsuccessfully trying to approach Eletra, while Eletra was a mild-mannered Night Fury, she was inherently cautious of Vikings. Valka finally did calm Eletra enough to allow her to get close, at first Valka tentatively brushed over Eletra's earflaps before lifting one of them confirming her suspicions. "Toothless, I see you don't have your saddle or tail fin attached, how do you expect to return home if you cannot fly? Where _is_ Hiccup by the way?" Cloudjumper added as Toothless eyed this exchange with Valka out of one eye.

"Thank you, you're an exquisite female Night Fury, and about the same age as Toothless, I see" Eletra was shocked how a Viking could know that about her. "She's been around dragons a _long_ time," Toothless said having finished his conversation with Cloudjumper. "I should give her name before a random comment sticks," Valka said crossing her arms and smiling. "It should fit such an elegant dragon..." After several failed names Valka tried "Starlight?" Eletra nodded smiling, "it's not the best name, but it will do," she thought. "Starlight, I won't tell Hiccup about you, Toothless will do that I'm sure. Toothless, I'll need you to take me to Hiccup." "Tha—Toothless, wait" Toothless stopped at this, it was the first time Eletra had called him Toothless instead of Thascale, not that he minded hearing his given name. 'Yes, Eletra?" "Cl-the Stormcutter is Cloudjumper correct?" Toothless nodded, and she continued, "what did he mean by Alpha? Surely he doesn't mean the Alpha species" Toothless grinned, "That's exactly what he means." "HOW!? They are only found in legends!" "It's a long, complicated story, I'll explain later." Toothless then left to go find Hiccup, he assured Cloudjumper he'd bring Hiccup back.

While Cloudjumper and Valka waited for Toothless to return, the Stormcutter decided to ask Eletra a few things, "So, it's Eletra? Or would you prefer Starlight?" Eletra thought for a moment, "Eletra is fine, you wanted to ask me something?" Cloudjumper nodded, "I wanted to know how Toothless arrived here and how he encountered you" Eletra began to nervously look in the direction Toothless disappeared in. "I promise I'll tell you, but I think now is a bad time, it was nice meeting you Cloudjumper." Eletra finished in a rush and took off for her cave, she had no intention of being around when Toothless showed up with Hiccup, she'd had enough unexpected attention to last her for some time.


	7. Chapter 7

Ch. 7

Hiccup's brief snooze was cut short when Toothless bounded back and lifted him into the air by his good foot. "AAHHH!" When Hiccup realized it was only Toothless fooling around, he stopped flailing. "You just had to do that, didn't you." Toothless opened his mouth and Hiccup dropped onto the ground with a thump. "At least you retracted your teeth this time." Toothless grumbled and once Hiccup was standing, promptly knocked him over with a huff. "You made your point, don't offend a Night Fury, I'm sorry," Hiccup said righting himself. Toothless, eager to get back to Valka urged Hiccup to gather the remains of his tail fin and saddle before rushing off into the foliage. "what's gotten into you bud?" Hiccup not able to keep pace with Toothless waited a few seconds for Toothless to realize Hiccup wasn't behind him and return.

The sun was setting when Toothless returned to the clearing with Hiccup. It hadn't taken that long, but the evening was setting in fast. Hiccup stumbled out into the clearing and fell onto Toothless's tail, his prosthetic having caught an unseen root. "Hiccup, are you hurt?" "yeah, must've tripped on a—" Hiccup stopped, remembering that Toothless could in fact _**not**_ speak. He looked up, "MOM?!" "Hiccup, you've been missing for 2 weeks, the whole village is worried about you." While Hiccup and Valka talked, Toothless looked around in dismay, "Cloudjumper, did Eletra say where she went?" "she didn't say, she was in a rush to leave before you and Hiccup returned." "I need to talk to her before we leave for Berk" "I wouldn't worry, Valka will probably want to spend the night here," Cloudjumper said reassuringly. "Thank you Cloudjumper" smiling he turned back to Hiccup who was still talking with his mom.

"I'm sorry mom, I was trying out some improvements I made to my flight suit when something happened to Toothless, I landed on this island and only found him in the last few days." "I can see that," Valka said vaguely upset at her son. "Astrid might not forgive you so easily." "Yeeah" Hiccup said wincing, not wanting to dwell on what painful receptions awaited him back on Berk, Hiccup changed the subject. "Did you bring Toothless's backup tailfin with you?" He held up the tattered remains of the current tailfin, bent metal, and scraps of tattered blotches of red made up what was once Toothless's tailfin. Valka was surprised by the condition of Toothless's saddle, showing all the wrong signs of Toothless getting into a fight on the island. The two Vikings puzzled over how Toothless would make it back to Berk with such perfectly damaged equipment. Toothless meanwhile took this time to escape back to Eletra, hoping his time with her was not coming to an end.

"Eletra?" Toothless called out as he entered the cave, it felt—empty. Looking around he saw her against the wall with her eyes glazed over. Eletra did not hear Toothless enter as she was trapped in her thoughts. "How quickly is he going to leave? Will he just slowly fade away?" she felt a soft nudge yet couldn't rouse herself from her thoughts. "ELETRA" Instantly she snapped back to reality. "Thascale!" Toothless was taken aback when she pressed her muzzle into his, it was unexpected, but not unwelcome. After a long moment, she backed away, obviously pleased with herself. "I hope I wasn't too forward with you Thascale." Toothless felt as if he'd just won 3 rounds of dragon racing without stopping to rest. His heart raced, his head felt light, and he felt unusually warm all over. Toothless tried to speak, but nothing came out—the shock had yet to wear off.

Eletra watched as Toothless tried to collect himself, with limited success. "I—I wanted to talk to you" He finally said after recovering his scattered wits. Both Night Furies soon left the cave to sit on the ledge. "Thascale, when Valka repairs your gear, you're going to leave aren't you?" "Yes—" Eletra looked at him her eyes a mixture of sadness and anger. He quickly finished. "—I am going to leave, but I want you to come back to Berk with me." Eletra's eyes lit up, her fears dissipating, dozens of possible replies passed thru her head before speaking, some less dignified than others. "Thank you!" Toothless was unsure how he'd bring Eletra to Berk without alerting Hiccup, "maybe Cloudjumper will be willing to assist me" he thought. Several minutes past before Eletra spoke again. "Thascale, how will you get me to Berk? I don't know how to get there unless I trail behind you and Hiccup." "I was going to ask Cloudjumper to fly back and guide you to Berk under cover of night." "Why all this secrecy? I can understand Hiccup from what you've told me, but sneak me in without anyone knowing?" She was confused, Toothless responded without missing a beat. "I want you to be comfortable with your new home before introducing you to a bunch of new Vikings and dragons." She smiled, happy to have a definite answer.

Early the next morning, Eletra awoke shortly before the sunrise to an unusual sensation, she thought the ground was breathing. Opening her eyes, she looked for the reason for this phenonium, only to find in the night she'd moved and was using Toothless's neck as a pillow. Embarrassed, she moved away, just to see his tail twitch. When she looked back Toothless was staring at her curiously. "Is my tail that fascinating?" he teased. "Oh stop, I was just—I mean I was just—" she stopped and gave Toothless an unconvincing glare, he chuckled before getting up. "I need to get back before Hiccup wakes up, just stay on this island and wait for Cloudjumper tonight." " Alright Thascale, I look forward to seeing you again." "As do I" after a quick grin, he left to return to Hiccup.

Toothless arrived back at the clearing, settled down, and pretended he never left. "Toothless, where've you been? Valka brought a spare tail fin for you, I don't know what to do about your saddle." Hiccup said to his dragon. Toothless looked around and found he must've fallen asleep after settling back in. Toothless soon realized that while Valka had brought a spare tailfin, that was all she brought. Hiccup needed his help to ensure the tailfin wouldn't close mid-flight. One scorched patch of ground later, Toothless had melted the joints in the tailfin together, so now it was incapable of closing. While this did result in the loss of part of the leather, Hiccup was not concerned. "I think that about does it, great work bud."

Neither Hiccup or Valka thought of a way to repair the extensive damage to his saddle, so it was that when they left, the saddle stayed behind. Toothless had a difficult time staying level with the improvised solution for the tailfin. It worked, but Toothless could feel the difference, and he did not like it. "Are you going to keep pretending that your tailfin is not working as it should all the way to Berk?" Cloudjumper, who was not easily fooled, asked after watching Toothless for some time. "I want to keep my mind busy, that way I won't turn around." Cloudjumper was initially confused but then remembered the female Night Fury. "You miss her, don't you? Is there anything I can do Toothless?" Leveling out momentarily, Toothless responded, "yes, please fly back tonight and guide Eletra back to Berk, please have her fly to the cove that I so often go to." Cloudjumper agreed with minimal questions, and soon Toothless resumed his fakery.

On Berk, word had spread of Valka going to search for Hiccup, confirming opinions throughout the village that something had indeed happened to Hiccup and his dragon. Astrid waited impatiently for Hiccup to return, she would ensure he was alive—and then kill him. When Hiccup finally arrived at Berk, it was a warm reception, everyone was relieved to see Hiccup and Toothless return safely. The welcoming, however, was interrupted by Astrid, who after pushing her way thru the crowd, greeted Hiccup with a punch to the left arm. "OWW! Astrid, you're—" but he didn't have the chance to finish his remark, as Astrid had already firmly planted their lips together. A long moment, and several cheers later, she stepped back—before stomping on his good foot. " _YEOW!_ Hiccup said hoping on his prosthetic as he held his good foot with both hands, but he quickly fell backward onto his dragon; his fake leg having slipped in the dirt. "What was _that_ for?! You've already punched me." "That was for making me wait two weeks to punch you for getting lost!" Astrid said before walking off into the dissipating crowd feeling satisfied.


	8. Chapter 8

Ch.8

At some point, before Hiccup found Toothless, a group of Monstrous Nightmares watched the pair of Night Furies from the shadows, deciding whether to attack or not. " _I warned you_ , now looks, that dragon has gone and recovered. We should've attacked that Night Fury when there was just **ONE** of them, but _nOooooo_. You and your precious morals Scream." Fright spat, "now there are _**two**_ Night Furies to deal with!" It was a sore spot that would fester in Scream and Fangbreath until re-surfacing as the group observed the newly arrived Night Fury helping out a Viking. " _Disgusting, a Night Fury of all dragons helping a Viking."_ Fright was seething. "That's the Viking, he's the one who escaped me, every dragon I see mocks me about it." "Flamewings, there can't be more than 10 dragons left on this miserable spit of land." "Then why have I been insulted and mocked 20 or 30 times, Fright answer me that!"

Fright, now adequately irritated, turned on Flamewings. "YOU EXAGGERATE! THAT'S WHY; YOU STUPID EMPTY HEADED NIGHTMARE!" Flamewings shrunk back, knowing the ensuing outcry from Fright would not be so friendly. Toothless glanced up at the shriek but quickly resumed helping Hiccup, not wanting to investigate further. Fright was not a cowardly dragon, nor was he an exceedingly stupid one. He reasoned engaging a Night Fury, especially knowing a second Night Fury lived nearby, wasn't in his best interests. This did not stop him from steaking out the Night Fury, to strike a blow while he slept. Fright was surprised when the dragon without warning, left the Viking asleep and unguarded. He quickly rallied his gang. "Scream, Fangbreath, get over here!" Fright looked behind him, seeing two Monstrous Nightmares slinking away. Upon hearing their names, they froze, unsure whether to run or to fight. "Y-yes? W-what is it you command?" Scream said his voice cracking. "If _you_ hadn't of hid behind your _morals_ you wouldn't have had this crisis!" Fright shouted at Scream, the word morals dripping off his tongue like a fungus. _"JUST TRY AND KILL ME!_ " Scream foolishly took the bait and charged, screaming. Hiccup was awakened by a loud crack, followed by an eerie silence. Hiccup, still mostly asleep, looked around, saw nothing unusual and went back to sleep, unaware of the events that'd just taken place nearby.

Firebreath looked at Scream's now lifeless body still gripped in Frights jaws in horror. Fright released hold of the body and glared at Firebreath. "Are you going to try and avenge your _stupid_ and very dead friend here? Or not?" Firebreath just stood staring, " _WELL?"_ Firebreath took a step forward and made a move to flee, but it was too late. A torrent of fire-slime slammed into Firebreath, he shrieked in agony, the unexpected force of the impact knocking him thru several saplings. He was alive, but would not remain so for much longer. Turning away from Firebreath, Fright discovered that the Viking had left, and neither he or Flamewings had seen him move.

Fright watched with an evil enjoyment, the recently arrived Night Fury leave with the Viking and a Stormcutter. "Now we can finally finish off that troublesome Night Fury!" "Why haven't we killed her before?" "idiot" Fright mumbled to himself before continuing in a frustrated tone. "Every time I go over this! This is a Night Fury, now go and find Scarfire, I want to teach that Night Fury a lesson about landing on _my_ island." "The Night Fury just left, how?" "Flamewings, just go get Scarfire" A short while later, Flamewings returned with Scarfire, a Monstrous Nightmare unlike Scream, who had no morals to cloud his judgment. "Scarfire, I want you to find that Night Fury that we see every so often and kill it." Scarfire was not a cowardly dragon, but he, like Fright knew Night Furies were not an easy target. "Fright, wouldn't it be better to attack this Night Fury at night? We didn't have any success last time." Scarfire said recalling a time when he had all his horns and no gaping scar on his body. "Coward" Fright hissed angrily. "He does have a point Fright, why attack a Night that has proven to be trouble when we can attack a different Night Fury right now?" Flamewings said completely skewing what Scarfire had said. "FOOLS!, have you not noticed that these two Night Furies show some kind of connection, killing one Night Fury would be worse than death for the other."

So it was as Berk celebrated Hiccups and Toothless safe return, Cloudjumper slipped away to bring Eletra back to live on Berk. To his horror, Cloudjumper found her trapped and encircled by three Monstrous Nightmares. The moon cast a faint light onto the clearing where Eletra was trapped making it even more ominous. " _Look what we finally tracked down, a troublesome Night Fury._ " Flamewings taunted, a move he would soon regret. "Not so terrifying when you're outnumbered, eh Night Fury?" He cast a snarl at her as the three dragons walked around her, "What are you going to do? I've got all night if need be" Fright sneered. "A slow, pained death, or a quick, violent death, you're choice _Night Fury_ " The Monstrous Nightmare were too busy to notice the Stormcutter just waiting for his chance to intervene. Eletra, having enough of their arrogance interjected. "Fright, you've got all night, correct?" Fright, playing into her trap responded, "that's what I said _Night Fury_ " "Well don't look now, daybreak is here." Before Flamewings knew what'd happened, his body lay in a growing pool of blood, his neck broken. Eletra eyes the remaining two dragons, who showed the fainted glimpse of dread in their eyes.

Scarfire, leaped at Eletra claws out when he was violently thrust into the ground by a stream of fire from above. Cloudjumper had joined the fight. Scarfire, wobbled to his feet, fire dripping off him as he looked at Eletra. She dared not close in, as Fright was already on the move, he was, however, too late. Eletra took flight and was gone. Cloudjumper back off as the two remaining Monstrous Nightmares recovered their senses. A sudden shrill cry rang out and out of nowhere, Scarfires neck bent most unnaturally as a high powered plasma blast struck him, he did not get up. Fright was now alone, his gang slaughtered. "DO YOUR WORST NIGHT FURY!" Eletra had been contemplating how best to attack Fright, she'd gotten lucky with Flamewings, and would've perished Cloudjumper hadn't intervened when he did. "May I suggest a suitable end to this dragon?" Cloudjumper said flying up alongside Eletra, she faltered at his sudden appearance but quickly recovering she agreed. "I'm at loss of how to successfully dispose of him." Fright, who'd finished checking to ensure Scarfire was in fact, dead, was turning to leave when Eletra landed. "Can't finish your own battles, eh Night Fury?" Fright said, but the fear in his voice was clear—he was afraid. He turned to see both Eletra and Cloudjumper before him, "So, how exactly are you planning to do away with me? _In what glorious fashion will you kill your arch-nemesis?"_ He asked, with an evil glee evident in his voice. Eletra calmly spoke, as if to mock this seriousness of the situation. "Oh, you're not my arch-nemesis, and I'm not going to kill you." It was with these words she stepped back, and Cloudjumper glared at the sad excuse for a dragon before him. "You have directly endangered the well-being of the Alpha, I will not allow you to do so again." With that Cloudjumper roasted Fright to a crisp.

There was only a little conversation between Cloudjumper and Eletra on the way back to Berk. "So Toothless really is an Alpha? I didn't quite believe him when he told me, that's incredible." "Do you know why those Monstrous Nightmares were attacking you?" Cloudjumper asked, his tone somber. "Yes, those Monstrous Nightmares killed most almost all of the dragons on that island, that was one of many times they'd tried to kill me. They took me by surprise, they'd been quiet for weeks, but they are dealt with now." "That is true, they won't be killing any more dragons, on that island or elsewhere." Eletra noticed lights below her, and she was curious, "not down there, that is the village, you'll want to follow me to a cove with a pond." Respecting Toothless's wishes, she turned away from the lights to follow Cloudjumper to the cove he mentioned.


	9. Chapter 9

Ch. 9

Eletra landed in the cove on Berk and immediately went for a swim, eager to erase any trace of her encounter with Fright and his Monstrous Nightmare gang. Cloudjumper did not wait around and promptly flew off in search of Toothless. It didn't take long to find him, he and Stormfly were buried in a conversation about the relationship of their riders. "—I think it'll only be 6 months before Hiccup and Astrid become mates," Stormfly said, stopping short when Cloudjumper landed. "Toothless, when you're finished, I'd like to have a word with you." "Alright, I'll be right there." turning to wrap up his conversation with Stormfly, "I think it'll take another 2 years, they've not become mates yet, so I doubt waiting will matter to them." Stormfly was taken aback. "2 years for our riders to become mates? That's ridiculous, They've obviously ramped up their relationship since Hiccup became Chief." "that's definitely true, I'll talk with you later Stormfly," Toothless said quickly wrapping up the conversation; Stormfly promptly flew off to Astrid's for in hopes of a late supper.

"Yes Cloudjumper? Was there any problems?" Toothless asked concerned. "There was a disagreement between some Monstrous Nightmares as she left, but that's dealt with." Toothless remembered Eletra mentioning something about Monstrous Nightmares on the island. "Is Eletra alright?" "Oh she's doing great, I left her at the cove—" Cloudjumper then said lowering his voice, "She needs to work on her self-defense though." "Thank you for doing this Cloudjumper, it means a lot." Cloudjumper smiled and flew off curious if the celebration for Hiccup was still underway. At the cove, Toothless arrived to find Eletra sleeping underneath the shade of a tree, behind a rock; he smiled.

Hiccup slept late the next day, giving Toothless ample time to check in with Eletra at the cove. "Eletra? Where are you?" About the time he asked that question, Eletra appeared—above him. Startled, he fell into the cove, using his wings to glide to a safe landing. "Good morning, I do like this cove, pity there isn't a cave here," She remarked excitedly, looking at all the cove had to offer. "Cloudjumper said you got into some trouble when leaving the island?" Eletra looked at him startled by his question. "Yes, several Monstrous Nightmares tried to kill me, probably would've, or at least injured me if Cloudjumper hadn't intervened like he did." Toothless was curious, Cloudjumper didn't mention that to him. "What did he do?" He asked suspiciously. "He prevented one of the dragons from ripping me open with its claws and then formally declared to Fright, who was the leader, that they were interfering with the well-being of the Alpha. Fright was roasted alive—he is dead if you wanted to know." Toothless was shocked at how far Cloudjumper was willing to go to ensure Eletra made it to Berk safely.

"I hope you like Berk, it really is a great place to live. We need to find you a suitable cave to inhabit, living here in the cove is a bad idea." Toothless said looking around, double checking that there weren't any caves. "I need to get back before Hiccup wakes up, I suspect he will need me for sizing a new tail-fin before long. Please don't wander into the village, at least not without me to discourage small Vikings." With that, Toothless vaulted up the cove wall using a recently fallen tree. "Glad I made it out of there on the first try," he thought to himself as he headed back to Hiccup. Eletra was confused why he mentioned small Vikings but didn't have time to ask him. "Guess, I'll go explore my new home then."

When Toothless arrived back at the Haddock residence, he found his breakfast waiting for him. "Where were you this morning Bud?" Hiccup asked while Toothless devoured his basket of fish. "I have to head to the forge to make you another saddle and tailfin, don't get into trouble without me." Toothless grumbled remembering his duties as Alpha, "here we go again." Being Alpha wasn't much different than before battling the Bewilderbeast, but he found himself being dragged into disputes more often, and he didn't want any part of the disputes. The only other major change was checking to ensure none of the livestock was eaten by dragons, and then finding the dragon who did it. Much later, after Toothless spoke with Stormfly and Hookfang on what the patrols had seen, he sat on a cliff, watching the sun sink in the sky, "Toothless, There you are." Hiccup approached with what looked to be a new tailfin.

Toothless, curious if anything had changed, looked away from the setting sun at Hiccup. He looked at Hiccup and then the tailfin and back to Hiccup, in essence, saying, "well, hurry up and open it." Hiccup wasted little time in opening the tailfin, several things stood out right away. The most obvious was the color—Night Fury black. Hiccup secured it in place, and Toothless looked at, lifting his tail, to his surprise the tailfin opened—by itself—with ease. "I thought I destroyed this tailfin 5 years ago at our first Snoggletog together." It was then Toothless realized Hiccup was speaking, "—Toothless, _please_ don't destroy this one, I know you'd rather fly with me than have an autonomous tailfin, but just hear me out." Toothless could already think of how helpful this would be, but he didn't want Hiccup to catch on that he actually _liked_ this tailfin. "I changed the color to match your real tailfin along with improving how responsive the tailfin is to your movements—I can make a red one if you really want it," Hiccup added not wanting Toothless to smash it into the ground. "It should be able to withstand most anything." Hiccup was quite pleased with his work and was eager for Toothless to test it out, "How about we fly to the village?" Toothless grinned, and like a shot, they were off.

Back at the village, Hiccup hugged Toothless before disappearing with Astrid to discuss the dragon trainees. Toothless, still equipped with his new tailfin trembled with excitement, Eager to test the limits of his new tailfin, he took off as fast as his wings would allow. The wind swept over Toothless's exposed back and felt marvelous, something he hadn't experienced in years. Toothless spend a long time just flying, and when he'd satisfied himself, he took to performing complex aerial maneuvers. After he'd had his fun, "Thascale!" Eletra dropped down to talk with Toothless, slightly startling him, she was ecstatic. "B-but how? You only have one tailfin and need Hiccup to help you fly." Toothless smiled, "He made me a tailfin that allows me to fly on my own." Neither dragon spoke for a moment, Eletra too shocked to say anything and Toothless not sure how to say what he felt. Eletra, however, was the first to speak, "Thascale, I couldn't find a suitable cave to sleep in, and I can't sleep in the open, do you have suggestions?" Toothless thought about it, the question was completely unrelated, but he didn't mind at all. Toothless did have an idea, but he needed to do one thing before telling his plan to Eletra. He knew he couldn't hide her for very long, especially from Hiccup, so he quickly formulated an idea on how to introduce her to Hiccup.

"Eletra? Will you be my mate?" Eletra nearly stopped flying, she had to quickly stabilize herself to avoid falling. "I—" she couldn't find the words to speak; finally she managed to force a word out. " _YES!"_ It took Eletra a full minute to collect her scrambled thoughts enough to ask her question once more. "Do you have a place for me to sleep?" "I have the perfect spot, follow me." Toothless then veered towards the village followed closely by Eletra.


	10. Chapter 10

Ch.10

Toothless landed behind the Hiccup's home, realizing he should explain his plan to Eletra before going inside. "Thascale, I thought you wanted to keep me hidden." Eletra said confused, "Hiccup will find out about you sooner or later, I'd rather he not discover you by accident." "are you sure—" "You'll be just fine, I promise, I trust Hiccup." It wasn't Toothless's faith in Hiccup that put Eletra at ease, but his promise that she'd be alright. Toothless was about to move when a thought caused him to pause. "I wonder if this what Eletra wants?" he looked at her, she looked back unsure what he was looking for. "Eletra, what do want to do?" "I'd like to meet this Hiccup you've told me so much about, now can you please show me where I can sleep." Relieved, Toothless began to move, "we'll find a more suitable place to live tomorrow." Inside, Eletra, having looked around Hiccup's room to her satisfaction, or much as was possible with a sleep Viking in the center of the room, lay down to sleep. Toothless settled down beside her and protectively draped his left wing over her. For the first time in days, a long-fought battle of thoughts and emotions in both his head and his heart—stopped. He felt at peace, his only thought the slow breathing of his new mate beside him.

In the morning Hiccup awoke, as usual, attached his prosthetic as usual and said good morning to the two Night Furies sleeping nearby as usual. It wasn't until Hiccup was at his steps did he realize something was _very_ different about Toothless this morning. He pivoted in place, unsure whether he was really awake or not. Hiccup looked at his dragon, but couldn't believe it, he blinked, then he rubbed his eyes, but the second Night Fury remained protectively under Toothless's left wing. He was unable to get his mind and mouth to agree on a full sentence—or any words for that matter for a solid minute. Downstairs Valka was calmly sipping her tea in front of the hearth not thinking about anything, just enjoying the quiet. That's when she heard it, the unmistakable sound of Hiccup having missed a step while trying to race down the stairs from his room. "Are you ok?" Valka asked as Hiccup hobbled over to her out of breath. He nodded and sat down. After several seconds, Hiccup's mouth opened, and he began to speak in an almost frantic tone—if he'd actually managed to do more than spout gibberish. Valka looked at him, a mix of worry and amusement crossed her face, Hiccup stopped talking once he realized this.

A few minutes and one cup of tea later, Hiccup spoke again. "MOM, THERE IS A NIGHT FURY IN MY ROOM!" Hiccup realized his mistake after a few seconds of silence and spoke again. "I MEAN THERE IS A SECOND NIGHT FURY IN MY ROOM!" With that said, Hiccup collapsed into the chair he was in. "Another Night Fury?" Valka said to herself, the feigned innocence dripping from her comment. "Guess Starlight is ready to be found," she thought, checking to ensure Hiccup was okay after his morning shock. Hiccup had in-fact fallen asleep leaving Valka to dwell on why Toothless would want to reveal Starlight so quickly.

Meanwhile, The two Night Furies slept, blissfully unaware of Hiccup's reaction to the discovery of Eletra. Slowly the two dragons woke, the first was Toothless, who heard footsteps coming closer. To his surprise it was Valka, carrying a small basket full of fish. "mmm, is that delightful aroma fish?" Eletra said sleepily, her eyes still shut. "Yes, there is a small basket of fish," Toothless whispered keeping his eyes on Valka. Eletra lazily opened her eyes to see Valka carefully set the basket down and back away. "Hiccup is asleep downstairs, you gave him quite the shock Starlight." Valka chuckled thinking about Hiccup's entrance down the stairs. Starlight wasted no time in devouring the fish and settling back down to resume her sleep, Toothless took this opportunity to close his left wing, which was starting to ache. He Turned back to Valka to see she'd vanished, and taken the basket with her. "I'd better find myself some breakfast, this is going to be a long day." He thought, making a move to get up, much to the displeasure of Eletra.

All at once he felt a tug, he turned his head to see Eletra had hold of his right tailfin in her mouth. "Just try and go anywhere, I'm not letting go." That's what she tried to say, but with a tailfin firmly grasped in her mouth it came out more like, "juff twhy amd gowa amywheref I'mf noat leffing gaof." Between Toothless's uncontrollable fits of laughing, he managed to ask her to repeat what she said, in which she repeated herself with no success. Finally, she released his tailfin and spoke, "I said, just try and go anywhere, I'm not letting go." By the time she said this, Toothless had moved his tail out of Eletra's reach, and he smiled. That's when Eletra knew she'd messed up, but not yet wanting to move, made no effort to recapture his tailfin. _"you're sneakier than I originally thought"_ Eletra did not like being bested, and she was determined to get back at him somehow.

Toothless was careful to steer Eletra away from a majority of the village that day, any Vikings that did happen to see her didn't believe their eyes and dismissed her as a hallucination. The only Viking to react as strongly to Eletra's existence as Hiccup was Astrid. She was resting against Stormfly on a sunny cliff when the two Night Furies flew past her, making her question her sanity. "Two Night Furies? How could I miss that!?" She said bolting upright. She grabbed Stormfly's face and looked her eye to eye, "how could I miss that!?" She let go of her dragon, well and truly unsettled by how she could've missed spotting a second Night Fury. ""I've been alert on every patrol, I couldn't have seen double, how could I miss _another Night Fury!"_ Stormfly was interested where Toothless found another Night Fury as well, but unlike her rider, she was not coming apart because of it.

Later that day, when Astrid happened across Hiccup, he wasn't prepared for what hit him—literally. "OW, why—" was all he could say before Astrid roughly grabbed his flight suit, essentially capturing him, and demanded to know how long she'd not spotted the unknown Night Fury. "Um, um, if it makes you feel any better, I only found out when I woke up this morning in my room, and I'm sure there weren't any dragons in my room when I went to sleep." Hiccup was trying to avoid another punch in the arm, and much to his relief she released her hold on his flight suit upon hearing his statement. She felt better knowing that even if she'd missed the Night Fury arrive on Berk, Hiccup had missed this Night Fury enter his room. With her angry pacified, Astrid's curiosity took hold, and the two Vikings become so involved talking about the new Night Fury and everything that could mean, they forgot to go look for the dragon itself.

Toothless and Eletra meanwhile, had not stuck around for any of the delightful reactions to her presence, as they were too busy finding an empty cave that was to their liking. It was sometime after passing by Astrid and Stormfly that the pair found a cave to their liking. It was a good fit for Night Furies, and the cave itself was partially sunk into the ground with the top half being composed entirely of rock. The entrance was hidden from sight by a small rock overhang and a few bushes, making the hole look like just another shadow, which was just big enough for a Night Fury. The floor of the cave was a mix of rock and dirt and was large enough to hold several fully grown Night Furies. That night, Hiccup was surprised to discover that neither Toothless or Starlight, a name Valka had suggested for the new Night Fury, were in his room. He knew it was near hopeless to search for a Night Fury in the dark, having personal experience to draw from. So he resigned himself to sleeping, hoping to get a better look at the wonderous new Night Fury soon.


	11. Chapter 11

Ch.11

The morning Toothless wandered into the village and was surprised to hear some Vikings talking about the possibility of a second Night Fury being on Berk and what that could mean. Hiccup, who was on his way to the forge to continue work on a new saddle, bumped into Toothless. "There you are, I didn't see you last night, I need to get your new saddle finished so we can go flying bud." With that, Hiccup was off again, leaving Toothless free to do what he wanted. He thought about following Hiccup to the forge to assist how he could, but a grumble from stomach soon turned his mind to more food-related subjects.

Toothless casually flew over to the dragon training arena to see how it was going. Astrid and Stormfly were teaching the new riders the tactics, behaviors, and characteristics of the Deadly Nadder. Toothless, having no interest to join in the fun without Hiccup, sat on the rim of the arena and watched. "I wonder if Eletra has woken up yet or not?" He did not have time to dwell on this as he overheard something from one of the riders. "Is it true that another Night Fury is on Berk?" At first, Astrid carried on with her instruction, picking a different Viking to reiterate what she'd just said about Stormfly's spikes; however, the other Vikings having not known about another Night Fury because curious. The topic quickly got out of hand and was only ended when Stormfly blasted a patch of wall above them. The small group sat down, motionless and petrified. "Whoever asked which one gets the Night Fury as their dragon—don't, ask, again." Toothless who'd listened to this with amusement, narrowed his eyes at the question but said nothing, satisfied with Astrid's reply. He left soon afterward a feeling of restlessness beginning to take hold.

Over the next few days, the Vikings on Berk saw very little of Toothless and even less of Eletra. Soon, the rumors of another Night Fury, with no further sightings, quietly faded away, leaving Hiccup, his mother and Astrid the only Vikings curious about the Night Fury. A few short days after the murmurs about Eletra stopped, a freak storm blew in and blanketed Berk in a think layer of powder that disappeared when stepped on. Nevertheless, the villagers began their winterizing of Berk. Hiccup with his attention firmly on preparing for the heavy storms, did not notice Toothless spending less and less time with him or other dragons like Stormfly, it wasn't until Astrid pointed it out to him, dragging the issue into the light that he truly realized how absent Toothless had been.

"Hiccup aren't you worried about Toothless at all?" She asked, seeing thru Hiccup's indifferent exterior. Astrid didn't expect Hiccup to break down and cry into her shoulder, nor did she expect him to be indifferent to his dragons whereabouts and unusual behavior changes. As was often the case she was right, the topic did bother him—a lot. "Yes, I am worried about Toothless but I'm sure he has his reasons" was the only response that she could force out of him. Unknown to Astrid, Hiccup's attention was on something else entirely. He was worried about his dragon, but after talking with his mother, was reassured his dragon was not acting unusual given that there was a female Night Fury on Berk. That evening in the Great hall with Astrid Hiccup reiterated this to Astrid, as a better explanation for his apparent lack of concern regarding his dragon's whereabouts.

Inside Toothless's and Eletra's cave, there was a growing problem. Eletra had become sluggish, and disinterested in activities that generally excited her. She slept more, ate more, and talked less. This was the reason for Toothless's unexplained disappearance, he was trying to lift her spirits. Finally, after days of listlessness, Eletra opened up. "Will the dragons like me?" Toothless was shocked such a simple question was the cause of her current state of mind. "I'm sure they'll like you, not all the dragons, but a lot of them." Eletra brightened at this, the glow starting to return to her eyes. "You haven't stretched your wings in days Eletra, don't you want to go soaring above the clouds?" Toothless was hoping that getting her flying would get rid of the remainder of her listlessness. A minute later the two dragons had left their cave and taken to the sky for some much-needed relaxation.

Toothless, seeing a problem that wasn't there, spoke up—a decision he would deeply regret. "Eletra, we each have our own lives, lives separate from each other, I feel it's important that we don't live only for each other. I was only around Night Furies until I was seven but I remember Night Furies—" Toothless stopped, Eletra's face a mix of anger, disgust, and sadness. "Eletra—" "Toothless, just stop, you've said enough." An icy chill shot thru Toothless, it radiated over his entire body, He watched Eletra fly away into the clouds, his heart felt hollow and dead. Toothless could only hope she planned to return to Berk, much less their cave, and maybe even—him. He made no move to chase after her, his heart feeling increasingly like an icy pincushion.


	12. Chapter 12

Ch. 12

Eletra sat on a cliff somewhere on Berk thinking about what Toothless had said. "You've could have said it better Toothless, besides don't you think I know living for somebody else becomes a constant battle to win their favor," she said quietly to herself. She continued to ponder what made Toothless ask such a tediously worded statement, and then it hit her. "Of course! He must've thought I was trying to live for him, and not living for myself." She thought about this but then realized this made absolutely no sense and dismissed it, unable to make any sense out his statement she decided the only way to clear it up, was to just go and ask him. When she arrived at their cave, she found it deserted, it felt cold and empty but determined to get an answer she lay down to wait for her mate to return. Toothless didn't show up, Eletra didn't hear so much as the crack of leaves or smashing of grass outside their cave. That night she fell into a depressed sleep, they were mates, and she knew that Night Furies at times disagreed with their mates, it was not unusual, but that never broke their bond. Her mother had treated many Night Furies that'd gotten in fights involving their mates. Eletra then remembered that most of those cases were male Night Furies defending their mates against an attacker or obscene comment.

Toothless had a terrible sleep, as he deeply regretted what he said but couldn't bear to go back to their cave and find it empty. He'd taken up residence in Hiccup's room, much to the surprise and joy of Hiccup. What joy Hiccup felt about having his dragon sleeping near him, evaporated. By morning Toothless was a wreck, his pained expression and how he'd tucked himself as small as possible were clear indicators something was dreadfully wrong. "Toothless, what's wrong, are you hurt?" Hiccup tried in vain to comfort his dragon until finally in a desperate last attempt, gave him some dragon nip. This did the trick, while not lessening the guilt in his mind, it woke Toothless up. Toothless now awake, smiled at Hiccup, it was, however, a sad smile, not the usual gleefully happy smile Hiccup was accustomed to. Hiccup stayed with his dragon for some time in an attempt to lift his spirits before leaving to finish Toothless's saddle.

Eletra hadn't fared much better, she was not a quivering mass when she awoke, but her heart was deeply saddened to find Toothless still not in their cave. Forcing herself to remain positive, she elected to go for a swim only to change her mind as the icy feel of the water penetrated her scales and settled itself into her bones. She tried various aerobatics to warm herself but found it no use, it felt like the water had leeched every ounce of warmth from her body. She began to shiver and soon had to land, her flying becoming too unstable continue safely. "S-s-oo c-cold," she said forcing the words out, walking was becoming increasingly difficult with every step, and she was beginning to panic.

Toothless, having now woken from his nightmarish sleep, and mostly regained control over his thoughts, sat in Hiccup's room trying to figure out why he said what he did. He stood deciding to speak with Cloudjumper on how best to apologize to Eletra. "Cloudjumper?" Toothless found the Stormcutter sleeping alone in one of the larger dragon stables, the other dragons having woken some time ago and gone about their day. "Do I need to open my eyes for this?" the large dragon said without flinching. "Yes, I need some advice, and I have a question." Slowly, Cloudjumper opened his eyes and began to compose himself, before sitting and looking Toothless in the eyes. "Yes? Ask me the question first." "Have you ever had a mate? Or fallen in love with another dragon?" Toothless's question caught Cloudjumper completely off-guard, and for a second his eyes went distant before re-focusing on the Night Fury before him. "That is a highly personal question Toothless, why did you ask me such a specific question?" "I asked Eletra to be my mate—" "I imagined you would after wanting her to live on Berk,—" Toothless cut Cloudjumper off, "but we had a falling out, she had grown listless and after a few days and I couldn't figure out why, then she told me, and I just brushed it off as a trivial thing. Right after that, we went flying so she could stretch her wings, and I said that we shouldn't live for each other, it was an unbelievably stupid remark, the guilt is tearing me apart." "How did Eletra react to this?" "How do think she reacted?! Anger, disgust, sadness, disappointment; she flew off into the clouds, I didn't follow her." "Just go and apologize, look for her and apologize. As for your question Toothless, I fell in love once, but I never had a mate."

A small dusting of flurries was twirling about when Toothless left Cloudjumper to find Eletra, he noticed Hiccup talking to a group of Vikings and gesturing to various buildings but chose to not get involved with preparing Berk for the snowstorms that were closing in. By the time Toothless reached his and Eletra's cave, the flurries had begun to stubbornly stick to the ground. "ELETRA!" from inside the cave he heard a sound, in a flash he was inside. "Eletra!" Toothless looked to see his mate, curled into a ball shivering and shaking, her eyes beginning to glaze over. "Tha-scale?" Her voice was barely audible and cracking. "What happened!" Toothless wasted no time in getting as close to his mate as possible to warm her up, "I went f-for a s-swim not realizing how c-cold it was" "You'll be alright Eletra, I'll get you thru this, you'll be alright, I promise." Toothless nosed Eletra's stomach and alarmed to find she was still cold, he didn't suspect she'd last much longer in her current state. "Eletra, this isn't working, you're going to need to trust me." "I al-ready do." She said having to force her words out. Following his instructions, she nestled into Toothless, and was soon cocooned in his wings, he did not find lying on his back comfortable or enjoyable, but he could think of no other way to keep his mate warm while her body temperature normalized.

During the night, the flurries gradually turned into a steady downfall of snow. By morning Berk awoke to snow a foot thick, while the storm had been reduced to a smattering of flurries, the temperature remained frigid. Berk became a frenzy of activity, melting snow and inspecting for damages, this lasted the entire morning, the snow melting process resulted in only a few buildings being burnt to a crisp. Toothless, asleep in his cave missed all this excitement, he'd been awake until sunrise ensuring his mate's body temperature returned to normal. When he awoke, it was midday, and Eletra was still asleep beside him. Careful to not wake his mate, Toothless left to find some breakfast, only to see that a thick blanket of snow had covered Berk. Toothless quickly melted the snow blocking his path and went to find Hiccup.

Toothless returned with his usual allotment of fish, and a few heisted cooked chickens for a change of diet. Eletra hadn't moved since he left, but soon the tantalizing smell of fish and chicken woke her and her stomach grumbled. "Eletra, I'm sorry for the unbelievably stupid things I said the other day, will you forgive me?" Eletra looked her from her late breakfast to stare at her mate. "Of course I forgive you Thascale, just think about what you're saying next time;" with that, she resumed eating. Over the next few weeks, snow storms, blizzards, and hail storms ravaged Berk, this was expected, just unpleasant. Thanks to a team of Deadly Nadders and their riders, critical paths on Berk were kept clear of snow and ice—mostly. Eletra, discovered during those few weeks, that if the snow was high enough and dense enough, she could carve out a tunnel inside of the snow. This opened a myriad of possibilities for the two Night Furies, both wanting some excitement.

The two dragons created a labyrinth of tunnels for both useful and humorous purposes. It was easier to navigate and find food traveling thru a tunnel in a blizzard that walking thru it, while it was also hilarious in the eyes of the Night Furies to sneak up on an unsuspecting dragon or Viking and scare them half to death. This had mixed results, some Vikings even went so far as to speak with Hiccup about the actions of his dragon. The dragons, however, found this only mildly annoying. This kept up until one of the caves collapsed, while Hiccup was standing on it. Hiccup looked up at Astrid, 6 feet above him, she had a stunned look on her face. There was a noise, Hiccup turned and was staring eye to eye with his dragon, who looked very guilty. "Is this what you've been up to? I thought we agreed you'd stop doing this Toothless." Toothless groaned, "Ok Toothless, I'm sorry, now could you help me out of this?" Toothless quickly came out of the tunnel and helped Hiccup climb out. As Hiccup climbed out, he noticed Eletra waiting inside the tunnel, watching him. "Thanks, bud, now stop doing that, that goes for Starlight too, one of these times the snow will collapse on top of you, and I won't know where you are to rescue you."

After that, Hiccup didn't receive any more complaints about Toothless's sneak attacks in the snow, which made him happy. A few days later Hiccup was reminded once again that Snoggletog was only two weeks away by Astrid, it sent an odd ripple of panic thru him. Meanwhile, Toothless returned to his cave after talking with a Rumblehorn about how crazy some the saddles were getting to find Eletra gone. The cave, however, was not empty, as Toothless entered and saw what was inside he stopped, and stared—his mind went completely blank. There, off to one side, wrapped in a fur blanket was a shiny midnight black egg—a Night Fury egg. Toothless could barely contain his excitement, "I'm going to be a father" he was ecstatic, and then the worry set in, "What if I'm not a good father? What if…" The joy in his heart quickly overpowered these thoughts effectively silencing them. "I hope you're not angry," Eletra said slipping into the cave behind him, turning his head he noticed a fur blanket clamped in her mouth. ""Angry? Eletra I'm overjoyed, how could I possibly be angry? I don't recall seeing an egg this morning, have you been hiding it from me?" "NO!' Eletra said astonished, "No, I wouldn't have hidden this from you, it happened after you'd left this morning." "Why did you leave our egg alone? You shouldn't do that." Eletra didn't answer him; instead, she proceeded to place the fur blanket on top of the egg before laying down, the egg now between her front legs. "I wasn't gone long, I only grabbed these to keep our egg warmer." Toothless gave into Eletra's smile, laying down beside his mate gazing at their egg euphoria sweeping over him.


	13. Chapter 13

Ch.13

Toothless returned from the village where Hiccup was preparing for Snoggletog happening in two days and hadn't seen Toothless silently make off with a basket of fish. After their egg came into being Eletra rarely left the cave; so Toothless brought her food, so she didn't have to hunt for it. "Thascale could you explain what this Snoggletog is again? I'm still confused on what it is exactly." She asked after finishing off the food he brought. She resumed warming the egg with a small stream of fire, "I think it is about celebrating being together, there is probably more but—" Toothless stopped when both dragons heard a very faint noise, it sounded like scratching. The two dragons looked at each other ecstatic, "Thascale! Our egg is hatchling!" Eletra placed the egg on top of the fur blankets a few feet from where they sat. Both Toothless and Eletra were in awe as they watched their egg hatch. There was no explosion, not like with Gronkle eggs, not at first. The egg quivered and shook before glowing hairline cracks appeared all over the egg. For a moment it looked to be a starless sky illuminated by lightning—and then the moment ended. A loud explosion sent tiny black shell fragments everywhere, a small cloud of white smoke covered the fur blankets for mere seconds before fading away into nothingness.

On the blanket, a small black Night Fury had appeared, sitting upright, head tuck into its stomach and front paws firmly covering its closed eyes. Toothless and Eletra could not contain their excitement, Toothless felt a deep sense of pride looking at his hatchling. "It's all over now, there is no bright light now," Eletra said soothingly taking a step towards her new hatchling. The new Night Fury had been ever so slightly quivering, whether from the shock of how the air felt or frightened by the light created by its own hatching, whatever the reason the moment Eletra spoke, the little dragon stopped and began to uncover its eyes. "You can open your eyes, the bright light is gone, you're out of your shell now little one." Eletra's voice was calm and soothing, slowly the dragon's eyes fluttered open, two light gold orbs with black splintering around the irises took their first glimpse of its new world. As the little dragon looked around Eletra stared awestruck by her new son. Then he saw Eletra, he was as awestruck by the blurry black _thing_ in front of him. He chirped in delight, he quickly covered his eyes, scaring himself with the loud chirp. After a few seconds he relaxed and once again looked awestruck at his mother, his vision had not improved, so she was still a blurry black thing. He became equally excited upon seeing a second black thing next to the first, and chirped again, he almost hid behind his paws again. After a few more seconds of this, he fell over onto his stomach atop the fur blankets his hind legs giving out.

"You'll learn quickly" Toothless said before lying flat on the ground so his hatchling wouldn't have to crane his neck to see his parents as much. "Thascale, what should we name him?" Eletra asked copying her mate and lying on the ground. "Do you have a name in mind?" Toothless asked his son, not thinking of a better idea. He began to chirp excitedly and made another attempt to stand on 4 legs. Toothless looked into his son's eyes trying to find some clue as to what he said. Eletra said something but Toothless was too busy trying to figure out what his son said. After several intense seconds, Toothless blinked, "I think he is just chirping because he is happy, not because he had a name in mind." "It was worth a try," Eletra said supportively. "We could call him Midnight," Toothless said giving his son a funny expression which made the small Night Fury, who'd almost stood up flop down making quick, short chirping sounds. "Toothless what did you do?" Eletra said worriedly. "I think he's laughing, there's nothing wrong at all." The little dragon's vision after several blinks had begun to focus, and he continued to be in awe of everything around him as it came into focus.

Toothless stood up wanting to look at his new son, now that the little dragon was lying down. He guessed that his son was 2 feet long from head to tailfins. Eletra watched as her hatchling looked in awe as Toothless stood up, only a few seconds later, he tried standing again, and by mimicking what Toothless had done he succeeded. He chirped happily and looked at his mother now mostly in focus, she nuzzled him, "so midnight?" Toothless asked but he was ignored. After another moment, the Night Fury Hatchling was readily discovering what he was using to keep himself up. It fascinated him; he turned his head and saw something else that amazed him, big black things on his sides. He had no idea what they were or how to use whatever they were, but he was eager to find out. While their hatchling discovered his tail, Eletra took the time to reply. "No, I think Midnight is a good name, but it just doesn't seem right for our hatchling, we'll find one, I'm not worried." Toothless nodded his agreement then the small Night Fury stopped what he was doing and mimicked Toothless, before chirping again. "I'm glad we're all in agreement," Eletra said jokingly. The next few minutes were spent watching their unnamed hatchling discover his tail could move, his tail fins could move and realizing what his wings were and that they moved. He still hadn't attempted walking, but there was just so much to take in Toothless, and Eletra were sure he'd get around to it.

After a few minutes, the fascination of opening and closing his wings wore off enough for the little dragon to realize how tired he was getting, as a last effort before flopping down on the blanket he looked at his mother smiling. Once he was asleep, Toothless retracted his teeth and carefully picked up his hatchling and placed his son behind his mate's earflaps. The Hatchling made a soft cooing before going to sleep again. "Toothless he's adorable," Eletra said overjoyed while being very careful not to disturb her hatchling. "Extremely." A few minutes later Toothless left and returned with his mouth full of fish, he gently set a couple on the ground for his mate and ate the rest. The smell brought the little Night Fury out of his sleep, and his stomach grumbled, it hurt, so he screeched. Toothless quickly removed him from Eletra's earflaps and put him on the fur blankets again. He chirped his displeasure at being removed from his bed, but once Eletra had regurgitated the back half of a fish only a foot from him, he quieted down. He had no idea what was in front of him, but his nose said it smelled good and his stomach hurt when he smelled it. "It's part of a fish, you eat it," Eletra said gently upon seeing his confusion.

He tried to reach the fish but found his legs wouldn't cooperate and looked at the fish determined to reach it somehow. Eletra scooted the fish closer to him, and he ate food for the first time. It took him a minute or so to eat the regurgitated fish as he had to learn how to use his mouth and teeth together. Once the fish was gone, and he was full, the little Night Fury flopped down again asleep. He wouldn't wake up until late the next morning. Toothless wasted no time in setting him back behind Eletra's earflaps. The next day was spent mostly sleeping, with short interludes of eating and being told what he was and what the parts of his body were. It was the next daythat he had the chance to take in even more experiences. "Eletra, we need to go, Snoggletog is today we should be there." Toothless whispered to his mate sleeping next to him with their hatchling snuggled up in her earflaps. "But why, can't they start without us?" she said still asleep. " Hiccup will wonder where I am, I don't want to leave you or our hatchling alone." "If you insist, but we'll go later on in the afternoon or evening not now." She said not arguing or realizing what she'd said entirely. Toothless didn't even have a chance to agree before she was asleep once more.

That evening in the Great hall, at which point Hiccup was thoroughly depressed remembering a Snoggletog similar to this five years ago, Valka had tried to comfort him, but it was no use. "Hiccup, I know you miss Toothless, and it only is made worse by the fact that everyone else has their dragons with them, but cheer up this is a festive happy occasion." Valka gave Hiccup a hug before going off to find Astrid in hopes she could cheer him up. "Hiccup—" Astrid was about to say something when she noticed Toothless, and Starlight quietly enter the great hall. A lot of other Vikings were taking notice as well, there was plenty of silent jabs for being called crazy upon seeing the second Night Fury. "— Hiccup, do you plan on sulking all night?" Hiccup laughed nervously. By now, all the Vikings in attendance at the Great hall had stopped and had been looking at the two Night Furies waiting behind Hiccup. Astrid couldn't take the stress of it anymore and grabbed Hiccup standing him up and spinning him around to face his dragon in one swift movement.

After a few seconds, Hiccup registered why Astrid had so abruptly spun him around. "TOOTHLESS!" the loud noise woke the sleeping hatchling who let out an upset chirp from behind Eletra's earflaps. The entire hall, including any dragons, froze and turned as one to stare at the two Night Furies. Everyone had heard the sound, and everyone looked at Toothless and Starlight for the source of the sound. The two Night Furies felt increasingly awkward being stared at in the absolute silence that had befallen the Great hall since their hatchling unknowingly announced himself. The little Night Fury soon poked his head out from beneath Starlight's earflaps, and a collective intake of air could be heard or in Toothless's case—felt. "You-you" Hiccup was at a loss for words, he was speechless, his dragon, his Toothless had created a family after so many fruitless years of searching. Valka who'd been watching only a few feet behind Astrid smiled at Toothless and Starlight. Their hatchling she was sure had looked directly at her when he looked around. "Hiccup isn't this great, Toothless had a family now," Astrid said breaking character and squeezing him. This was enough to break the tension in the room, and soon the Vikings resumed what they'd been doing. Hiccup approached Toothless careful not to get close to his hatchling and gave him a hug around his neck. "Toothless, you can't imagine how happy this makes me, I'm glad you finally have a family again." Astrid who'd never been properly introduced to Eletra looked at her, "Starlight, you're gorgeous—but don't tell Stormfly, she'll be jealous I said that."


End file.
